The challenges of growing up can be difficult. The hormonal imbalance and readjustments to their bodies make can mean that the teenage years can be emotional to say the least. Adding into the mix the questions, ‘Who am I?’ and, ‘Who are you?’ that we are asking all the time means that life can be confusing. All the while that this is going on, there is the pressure to conform to an ever-changing sea of fashion and the magnetic pull of fitting in. Of course, while wrestling with the above you must make sure that your every move is fully and properly published on social media. Then when you come up for air you must make decisions about your future, what subjects to study for a career that you haven’t decided upon yet and at a time when you can barely make a decision about today.

Section 34 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 provides for RSE to be taught in all schools in England (Long, 2017).

“What is ‘RSE’?” I hear you ask. “Relationships and sex education (RSE) is learning about the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing up, relationships, sex, human sexuality and sexual health. It should equip children and young people with the information, skills and positive values to have safe, fulfilling relationships, to enjoy their sexuality and to take responsibility for their sexual health and well-being” (DfE, 2017).

Do you know the story of ‘Jesus and the 10 Jaguars’? No? Neither do I! Yet, on some feedback from one of our schools, one of the Reception children said that his favourite story of the term was ‘Jesus and the 10 Jaguars’. I sat there in my office, trying to work out what they meant and I had to admit defeat. Fortunately, one of my team worked it out. Earlier that term we had done the story of Jesus healing the 10 lepers (using wooden spoon puppets). It seems the child in question had misunderstood lepers and heard it as leopards, and then from there it was easy to see where the jaguar reference came from.

Often, we hear that we should be watchful about how we communicate the Christian faith, and make sure we don’t talk about it as a life that is all sunshine and rainbows. If anything, it can be a calling into a much tougher lifestyle. But life can still feel like it sucks – whether we have faith or not. Recently I was listening to a song with the lyrics, “life can be hard, life can be so hard”. The song was written for the Grammy music awards, and its title was the USA’s national suicide prevention lifeline phone number. For the two hours after it was first performed live the phone lines were three times busier than normal (according to a report by the Huffington Post). The lyrics were an honest reflection of so many peoples struggle and seemingly resonated with and moved them to talk to someone.

How we measure personal best is really important. Everyday children and young people will be returning home from school with a set of numbers that tell them they are either good or not. It is probably not the intention but that is what it says. “I only got 7/10 on my spellings,” “I got an 8 on my course work, Darren got 9 and he did no work!” “Great news, I got a scale score of 103!”. “I only got 15 out of 35 on the SATs practice!” “100%!”

Jesus epitomised compassion, demonstrating it by radically loving everyone, no matter what their condition. CSCW are passionate about educating young people about human worth and compassion towards others. Through the RSE work, the hope and aim is that young people will love and value themselves enough to protect themselves against HIV and other STIs; love and value others enough to protect them and have compassion towards people living with the virus.

It’s that time of year again, the days are getting shorter, the night draws in earlier and everywhere feels grey. Along with the festivals that come with this season, everything can feel a little dark. This can often reflect our society, we hear of tragedies in the news and see negative behaviours from people. Sometimes it can seem like there is little hope in a world that feels so dark. However, in the very beginning, God created light (Genesis 1v3), in Him there is no darkness, and the darkness cannot extinguish the light (John 1v5).

Open The Book is reliant on some amazing volunteers who have a real passion to share the good news with children and are willing to give time each week to do so. We are so grateful for those that can do this as we couldn’t do it without them! It is with some sadness, that we have to say goodbye to one of our longest Open The Book (OTB) volunteers, Barbara, as she moves away from Chester. We thought it would be a good chance to ask her some questions about what volunteering means and why she has done it.

‘Young people are so ungrateful these days!’ I wonder if you have heard that phrase or one similar; maybe you have uttered it. Someone who I have a lot of respect for, once told me that one sign of a person’s maturity is their ability to say thank you. It is a small phrase that carries with it huge significance. It recognises the thought, work, generosity and kindness of others.

The concept of FoMO (The Fear of Missing out) is a relatively new one characterised by a need to be constantly connected with what others are doing in order to not miss out. Young people especially are rarely seen without their mobile phones. We are in the age of instant communication; digital media is very much part of daily life.

A couple of years ago I visited a school with a new head-teacher, and as I went into the hall to set up, I noticed a sign that read something like ‘You are now coming into worship.’ It was a simple sign but it had a profound effect on me.

In my role as Relationships and Sex Coordinator I obviously spend a lot of time in our local high schools teaching young people about all issues related to sex. There is often time for questions and I find that there are often many! Young people want to and need to know about these important life issues.

Last week I had the privilege of going away to Lithuania for three days with a small team to visit a youth centre in the city of Kaunas. The purpose of our trip was to build relationships with the youth centre, to share ideas on the work that we do and to strengthen one another through prayer and teaching. I want to share a reflection from this time away.

Young people are growing up in interesting times to say the least. Over the past year, both here and abroad, it seems that Truth has become merely a possibility, an option among many that can be believed if you choose to do so.

If anyone has the Pinterest app they will know that it is an incredible resource for finding all sorts of creative ideas. I use it a lot for different youth resources and games and particularly for craft activities. However, they never end up looking quite as good as the pictures on Pinterest! The reality of what I create does not live up to the work of art I am told I can make. My expectations don’t match up with reality.

As I go into the schools to do Open The Book, I can guarantee that I will hear the following phrase each week, usually in more than one of the schools. ‘Today is our favourite day of the week as it’s time for Open The Book’,